Adass Israel welcomes new Rov
ELABORATE and impressive ceremonies welcomed Rabbi Shlomo Kohn to Melbourne's Adass Israel Congregation earlier this month.
ELABORATE and impressive ceremonies welcomed Rabbi Shlomo Kohn to Melbourne’s Adass Israel Congregation earlier this month.
He has become the community’s fifth Rov since it was inaugurated in 1950. Prior to his arrival Rabbi Kohn was a Rov in Kiryat Mattersdorf, Jerusalem.
Following his arrival from Israel via Sydney, where he had been met by senior congregational representatives, on Monday evening he was led towards the shule in a torchlit procession with musical accompaniment – similar to the procession that traditionally accompanies a hachnasat sefer Torah.
Both inside and out the shule building was decorated with elaborate signage welcoming the new congregational head and wishing him hatzlachah in all his endeavours. The many hundreds who had gathered for the historic occasion were invited into the hall to hear brief words of welcome and wish the Rov l’chaim.
The main formal welcome was held on Tuesday evening when some 600 men and women attended a welcome banquet at the Mercure/Pullman reception hall in Albert Park.
The function chaired by Reb Yitzchak Yaakov Friedman featured a series of speakers including communal stalwart Rabbi Shimon Opman, president Binyamin Koppel and guest speaker Rav Moshe Wozner of Lakewood, whose grandfather had been the new Rov’s teacher and mentor. A series of presentations were made to various donors and communal activists who had facilitated the Rov’s arrival and the grand welcome function. Rabbi Kohn was presented with a beautifully ornamented “Ktav Rabbanut” – a traditional document conferring upon him the title of community rabbi. Those speakers and presentations were then followed by an address from the Rov himself.
Divrei Torah aside, the various speakers referred to the personalities who previously occupied the position, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Neuman, Rabbi Betzalel Stern, Rabbi Elimelech Ashkenazi and Rabbi Avraham Tzvi Beck. Even with their variety of backgrounds within the Orthodox world, they had set the kehillah on its current path incorporating into one community members with a variety of Ashkenazi and Chassidic affiliations. All followed the uncompromising approach of the Chatam Sofer, Rabbi Moshe Sofer, who had established and championed the maintenance of traditional ways down to details of custom as essential to Jewish continuity.
Rabbi Kohn, who recalled his childhood connection with Rav Neumann after he had moved from Melbourne to Montreal, appealed for a continuation of this level of unity and commitment to the established path of the community.
YOSSI ARON
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